Maria Gordon Farrell - Tappan Zee 1981

Maria Gordon showed glimpses of her athletic promise in gymnastics and track & field as a middle school student, and harnessed that talent to develop into a state-caliber high jumper and multi-event standout for the Tappan Zee winter and spring track teams. Track coach Reid Hoffer saw Maria’s innate ability right from the start and guided her ascendance into the jumping stratosphere and the pantheon of Rockland track champions. “She was clearly a gifted athlete, but she also was so dedicated at what she did and very receptive to coaching,” says Hoffer, who coached Maria at the middle- and high-school levels and taught her in 6th grade social studies. “She did so much to learn and improve.”

In the high jump, Maria won five County titles and five Section 9 crowns, held the County and Section record (5’5”) for three years, and made first-team All-County five times, and was a three-time medalist at the New York State championships: third outdoors in 1981, fifth indoors in 1979, and sixth indoors in 1980. The team captain and MVP her junior and senior years, Maria was a major scorer in the jumps, sprints, hurdles and relays and joined with versatile teammates Erika Lively, Julie Maloney and Monica Hautau to lead Tappan Zee to second place in the 1979 PSAL championships.Maria also was New England Relays high jump champion and competed four years in the Empire State Games, in either the high jump or seven-event heptathlon. She posted the highest multi-event scores by a Rocklander up to that time, 2,993 in winning the 1981 Suffern Pentathlon, and 4,008 while capturing the 1979 Empire State Games qualifier for the Hudson Valley Region. Her jump of 5-5 at the 1979 Section 9 Class A meet was also a Section 9 record, and she amassed a total of seven jumps of 5-3 or higher during her high school career.

“I have so many wonderful memories of high school track,” says Maria, who also was a second-team All-County diver in 1979 and school record-holder. “I developed strong friendships and we had a really close-knit group.” Her closest track friends were Bob Kubarych, Tommy Harten, Dan Patrick and Sheila Petigny, and her best friend overall at Tappan Zee was fellow diver Carolyn Hodge, who eclipsed her school record. Maria also has words of praise for Hoffer, one of Rockland’s premier jumps coaches for more than three decades. “He saw something in me and worked very hard to make me believe I could do something with this sport. He put in time well beyond the after-school track practices, and nurtured the athlete and the ‘kid.’ He is a very special person.”

At Wagner College, which she attended on a track scholarship, Maria won the New York State AIAW indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon championships in 1982, and qualified for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials in the heptathlon. She set school records in no less than eight events: high jump (5-7), long jump, triple jump, shot put, 100-meter hurdles, heptathlon, pentathlon and as a leg on the 4x200-meter relay.

“I think winning the pentathlon and heptathlon events were the highlights of my time at Wagner, even though I hated the 800 meters!” says Maria, who gave ample credit to her coach at Wagner, Jim Grogan. “My score in the heptathlon was high enough to qualify for the Olympic Trials but I didn’t earn the score until right before the Qualifier so did not go.”

Maria received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wagner and a doctorate in educational leadership from Capella University.

She taught special education at Monticello High School from 1986 to ’99, coached the school’s track team for three years and had two state-champion jumpers – Larry Armstead in the triple jump and Katina Mack in the long jump.She has been supervisor of special education in the Delaware Valley School District in Milford, Pa., since 1999. Maria, who is 50, has been married for 23 years to John Farrell, anEnglish teacher in the district. The Farrells have two children: Andrew, 20, and Grace, 17.Dr. Maria Farrell was inducted into the Tappan Zee Athletic Hall of Fame in November 2012.